An album of the weapons, tools, ornaments, articles of dress &c. of the natives of the Pacific Islands : drawn and described from examples in public & private collections in England [or] Australasia

Privately published : lithographed by Palmer, Howe & Co.

1890-1895

English

Bib record

PD211 [Sketch books] by Partington, James Edge, 1854-1930, Artist

Limited edition

Obituary
'WE regret to record the death of Mr. James Edge-Partington, which took place at Beaconsfield on Nov. 4, at the age of seventy-six years. Mr. Edge-Partington was an authority on the material culture of the Pacific, and at one time was the owner of a very extensive collection of objects from the South Seas, which included many rarities. This was dispersed during his lifetime, part going by purchase and gift to the British Museum and part to the Auckland Museum. A second collection of books and prints relating to Australasia went to an Australian museum. Mr. Edge-Partington's contributions to scientific literature, which were numerous, were mostly descriptive, but they were characterised by extreme accuracy, critical acumen, and a common sense which was allied with a sound appreciation of the bearing of the analytical study of material culture on the problems of ethnology. His most important contribution to anthropological literature, however, was an ethnographic album of the Pacific in which tools, implements, personal ornaments, and other objects in European collections, especially his own and that of the British Museum, were reproduced by lithography from his own drawings. It was issued in three series, which appeared in 1890, 1895, and 1898 respectively. It is now extremely rare, very few copies remaining in private hands. Mr. Edge-Partington's interests were not confined to the Pacific; he was also a keen student and collector of objects illustrating the culture of the European peasantry, and had devoted much attention to the peasant industries of the Chiltern area in which he lived. For many years he was a valued voluntary worker in the ethnographical department of the British Museum, and a very active member of the council of the Royal Anthropological Institute.'--Nature ; Volume 126, page 926 (1930).

Reserve Collection - Extra Outsize

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19 Dec 2023